Inherent Vice: WSJ Article
Robin Landseadel
robinlandseadel at comcast.net
Thu Jul 30 17:12:52 CDT 2009
Not so much a review as a general article on the responses of folks we
all know:
Pynchon’s Drugstore Thriller
The reclusive novelist offers his most accessible—and commercial—work
yet
By ALEXANDRA ALTER
Branding a Thomas Pynchon novel as “light reading” seems almost as far-
fetched as one of the author’s hallucinatory plotlines involving time
travel or a dog that reads Henry James.
Yet his latest offering, “Inherent Vice,” a noir-like novel set in Los
Angeles at the end of the 1960s, is being billed as his most
accessible novel to date. Landing three years after his 1,085-page
epic “Against the Day,” the 384-page book has been labeled a “novella”
by literary bloggers. The Creative Artists Agency in Los Angeles is
handling film rights . None of Mr. Pynchon’s previous complex,
postmodern novels have been adapted to the screen.
“Inherent Vice,” which comes out Aug. 4, has touched off a debate
among fans and critics who are puzzled by Mr. Pynchon’s decision to
take on the commercial format of a detective novel. Is “Inherent
Vice,” as some Pynchon fans argue, a sophisticated parody, a classic
Pynchon opus masquerading as a light read? Or is the reclusive
novelist wholeheartedly embracing a genre that he has alluded to in
“Gravity’s Rainbow” and other works?
Mr. Pynchon’s enigmatic persona has fueled the intrigue. Known for his
sprawling, layered plots and intricate, brainteaser-like sentences,
the 72-year-old author has shunned the limelight ever since he was
catapulted to fame with the 1973 publication of “Gravity’s Rainbow.”
Fans have made a sport of combing Mr. Pynchon’s books for clues about
his tastes, literary influences and philosophy. There have been long
dry spells. It took Mr. Pynchon 17 years after publishing “Gravity’s
Rainbow” to come out with “Vineland,” seven years after that to
complete “Mason & Dixon,” and nine years to publish “Against the Day.”
“Inherent Vice” follows a dope-smoking private detective named Larry
“Doc” Sportello who sets out to solve the disappearance of a crooked
billionaire land developer. The investigation leads the drug-addled
detective to uncover a vast conspiracy involving the Los Angeles
police department and a mysterious enterprise called “The Golden
Fang,” an apparent smuggling vessel, drug cartel and a group of
dentists.
“It’s a very entertaining book, but it will take re-reading for me to
figure out whether there’s a lot more than that,” says John Krafft, an
English professor at Miami University in Ohio and an editor of
“Pynchon Notes,” a literary criticism journal devoted to Pynchon’s
work. The book wouldn’t be out of place on “drugstore detective
fiction racks,” he adds.
“Inherent Vice” has plenty of Pynchon-esque touches. It’s laced with
racial and political paranoia, drug trips that blur hallucinations
with reality, and 1960s pop culture references. It mixes heavy themes
with stoner jokes and hosts a menagerie of colorful characters,
including a hippie-hating cop who hoards frozen bananas in a coroner’s
freezer.
Penguin Press has been playing up the book’s mystery-genre elements.
Publicity material describes it as “part noir, part psychedelic romp.”
Professor Steven Weisenburger, a Pynchon scholar at Southern Methodist
University in Dallas, dismisses the noir label as “an easy marketing
tag” that belies the novel’s complexity.
Mr. Pynchon has declined interview requests for decades. His wife and
agent, Melanie Jackson, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Penguin Press said Mr. Pynchon’s editor declined to comment.
Mr. Pynchon, though, has hardly been silent through the years. A pop
culture fanatic, he has written book blurbs, reviews and articles for
mainstream magazines. In 2004, he made guest appearances on “The
Simpsons,” lending his voice to an animated character named Thomas
Pynchon who, in a spoof on the author’s elusiveness, wore a paper bag
over his head.
Tim Ware, a Web developer who built a Pynchon Wiki site with 1,000
subscribers, says he’s heard a few complaints that the latest novel is
“lightweight.” If some hardcore fans put off, the novel will likely
draw new readers, he says.
“It will work perfectly as good beach reading,” he says.
Write to Alexandra Alter at alexandra.alter at wsj.com
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